


A Good Speech

by emmystew



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Graduation Speech, High School AU, M/M, One Shot, castiel is home schooled, coming clean, dean is super smart, long distance high school romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 11:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3325433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmystew/pseuds/emmystew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A good speech has to have four parts. An introduction, where I tell you who I am and how I got here. The second part is a confession of a mistake that I have made. The third is how that mistake got resolved, and the last is what I learned from it. So, let’s start with the introduction. My name is Dean Winchester. I’m an Aquarius, I like long walks on the beach, and I honestly thought about dropping out of high school and running away about six months ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Speech

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if this is going to turn into the prologue of a much longer fic, but for now it's a standalone.

“Hello, my name is Dean Winchester and I’m this years valedictorian by student vote. I was pulled into Principal Barnes’ office and told this last week so excuse me if I’m a bit nervous. A very important friend told me that any good speech had to have four parts. An introduction, where I tell you who I am and how I got here. The second part is a confession of a mistake that I have made. The third is how that mistake got resolved, and the last is what I learned from it. So, let’s start with the introduction. I’m an Aquarius, I like long walks on the beach, and I honestly thought about dropping out of high school and running away about six months ago.”

The auditorium, which had been full of whispers and quiet laughter up until that moment, quieted down almost instantly, every single graduate, parent and relative turning their full, shocked attention to the valedictorian standing center stage and presenting the final speech before the graduates of Lawrence High School collected their diplomas.

The principal, teachers, and the super intendments – Dean was sure – were staring at the back of his head in shock. Somewhere in the crowd his parents and little brother were probably staring at each other, gobsmacked that he was giving this speech at all, let alone with the way he chose to begin. They didn’t know, after all, that Dean had planned to run away at the end of January, much less his grade point average.

But Dean didn’t look up from his note cards, and after a longer pause than he intended, he continued speaking.

His hands were shaking, slightly.

“That probably came as a bit of surprise to my parents, they didn’t know. They couldn’t have known any of this. But well, I am a very accomplished liar and I’ve been keeping a lot of secrets. I thought I’d clear the slate today, since I need to include a confession.” He cleared his throat as indicated on the card and squared his shoulders. “I have a perfect four-point grade point average. I’m sure that probably comes as a shock, but there’s no way I’d be up here giving this speech if I hadn’t studied so hard for the last four years. My parents think that I spent all my time partying, but to be honest, I’ve spent nearly every weekend at the library in Topeka. I’ve been accepted at five different Ivy League schools, and I’ll be attending MIT in the fall for a degree in engineering on a full ride scholarship.”

Dean paused, his hands shaking a little as he flipped to the next card. He looked up suddenly, and said – off script, “surprise, mom and dad, I guess.”

The room laughed a little bit but settled fairly quickly.

“I tried, when I was a freshman, to study at home and then at the local library, but at home I was always needed doing something else, and at the library – well, I was somehow very popular and I kept getting interrupted by my fellow classmates. Girls, mostly who wanted to impress their friends by talking to me, I think. So I hopped a bus and went to Topeka to study there. It was odd, at first. But I made a friend and we would study all weekend together. We starting hanging out outside of the library, he was a better friend than I’d ever had before. He pushed me, inspired me, and comforted me when I was feeling low. Last November though, I hit a tight spot, I-“ Dean hesitated, but steeled himself. He had promised he would tell the truth today, and even though it was a bit more public than he intended, his parents needed to know the truth. All of it. He’d promised.

“I discovered that despite everything I thought about myself, I was wrong. I was so cliché. It was against everything I wanted in my life. It terrified me.” His lips twisted a little, not wanting to say it, but forcing himself to. “I was gay. And I was in love with my best friend. Um, surprise again, mom and dad.”

The crowd laughed again, a little hesitantly this time.

Some murmuring from the crowd, and a lot of whispering from the students. After all, nobody at Lawrence could claim to be Dean’s _best_ friend. All the girls who had lied about weekends spent with him, all the people who swore up and down that he had shown them a good time, Dean had just outed them.

Dean very carefully didn’t look up at the crowd. He was sure if he did, he’d lose his nerve. Because his _dad_ was out there. He’d just come out to his _dad_. To his mom. To Sam and Bobby and Ellen. People who really mattered.

“That’s the confession part, here’s the mistake. I-“ Dean took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “I did everything I could think of to hide it from him. I didn’t have the courage to tell him, but I didn’t have the strength to leave him behind either. I lied to him about how I felt, and stopping meeting him at the library. He found me here in Lawrence and blew up at me for lying to him. At Christmas, he came back again and demanded to know what was going on with me. He-” Dean smiled. “He was braver than I had been, he told me he loved me, and I just – wow. I was wowed.”

Someone in the back of the room wolf whistled, which set off another round of laughter.

“We knew the consequences of our choice, of course. He had just turned eighteen that September, I was turning eighteen in January, if our families didn’t accept us – and there was very little evidence that they would – there was nothing to make us stay. To resolve this, we were going to run away, drop out and try our luck somewhere else. His brother found out about three hours after we’d made our choice to leave. Sat us down and gave us a talking to. Convinced us to stay, to be smart. Convinced us to keep going the way we had been. Our dreams of college, opening our own auto shop. He made us promise to be honest about it. About us. And today I’m fulfilling that promise. For myself, I guess. But really for my boyfriend, Castiel and his brother Gabriel Novak.”

Dean paused again, turning to the last card of his speech. “I’m not telling you all this just to shock you. This was a very important lesson for me, and for Cas.” He paused again, bracing himself. “The point is that by lying I almost lost the person in my life that I love the most. By trying to keep it a secret, we almost ran away and left behind the people who care about us the most. Here is what I learned from this. Seniors,” he said, finally addressing the graduating class directly. “Don’t repeat my mistakes. Be honest, and brave, and accept that you can’t predict the future, you can’t predict how people will react, and most importantly, don’t hold yourself back from loving someone, whoever it is. I walked into this room today and only one person here really knew who I was. The people who care about me the most are just as surprised as everybody else. If you accept one piece of advice from me, graduates, it’s: be honest and brave. Going into a future you’ve tangled with lies isn’t worth it.” Dean paused again, before reading the final line on his final card. “An introduction, a mistake, the resolution and the lesson are what are required for a good speech. For this one, I’ll also give you a cliché. Congratulations class of 1997, we did it. ”

Dean stepped back from the microphone and finally looked up. The auditorium was silent for several long moments before there was tentative applause. That applause slowly gained strength and soon there were hoots and whistles. Dean stumbled from the stage in shock that he had actually done it, laid everything out for the world after keeping it close to his chest for so long.

At the bottom of the steps for the stage two people were waiting, and Dean fell into the arms of his boyfriend.

“You’re amazing,” Cas whispered in his ear, running one had down Dean’s arm and wrapping the other around him in a tight hug.

“Way to go, Dean-o,” Gabriel crowed, thumping him on the back.

“Thank you, Mr. Winchester,” the principal’s voice rang out over the applause, which slowly settled down. “Alright graduates, I’m sure you’re all excited to get this show on the road, so let’s begin.”

Dean lifted one hand to the stage in acknowledgement and allowed Cas and Gabriel to drag him up the aisle, back to his seat. His name was going to be the last called, which would give him several long moments to get his breathing under control. Finally, ages later the row Dean is sitting in stands up and files up the aisle to be announced for their walk across the stage to gather their diplomas.

“Dean Winchester, for MIT, full scholarship,” Principal Barnes announced, exactly as she had for every student before him.

The room erupted in cheers, much more than Dean had expected. He’d expected to be chase out of the room.

Dean crossed the stage, collected his diploma, shook every hand offered to him, and chanced a look out at the crowd. His parents and Sam had somehow appeared right at the bottom of the stage steps, cheering and clapping with so much love on their faces that Dean’s eyes welled up a little bit. He left the stage, right into his mother’s arms.

“I’m so proud,” she whispered as Sam punched him in the arm.

John Winchester nodded tightly in agreement with his wife. “You’ll introduce us to Castiel, of course,” he said sternly.

But there was no need because Cas and Gabriel were waiting a little further up with huge smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> I habitually have a cat sitting on me while I'm typing, so any typo's I blame on them.


End file.
